Bell Canada mail problems to easyDNS domains

After several calm interludes where we think the problem has gone away, it starts back up again and did so again today.

To recap:

People attempting to send email FROM network points inside Bell Canada, Bell Nexxia or other Bell ips (like from an ISP downstream from Bell), are finding that sporadically and randomly their email is being attempted to be delivered to the A record for a domain instead of the MX record, which can cause bounces if the two are different and the former doesn’t normally handle email.

We are well aware of the pain this is causing affected customers and while we’re now running off of a DNS configuration we have been using for the better part of 10 years (i.e. no anycast at the moment) and we are only seeing this from Bell customers we have to emphasize that this issue is right now, and has been for close to two weeks: the number one absolute top priority within this company

We’re working on this literally around the clock.

Here are some things you can try to lessen the pain if you are affected:

• If your A record is different from your MX and you have the ability to do so, have your A record relay mail for your domains over to the MX. That way when Bell (or anybody else) mistakenly delivers email to your A record host, instead of bouncing, it’ll get to where it’s actually supposed to go.

• If you are on Bell and email you are originating is encountering these problems, try setting your DNS resolver to: 67.69.184.199

• If you are on Bell, try setting your outbound SMTP handler to smtp10.bellnexxia.net

• If you are an easyDNS customer and your outbound mail via Bell is affected, you can use our easySMTP outbound mail service for free until this is resolved. Contact support to have it activated for your account.

Again, this is the number one priority here, we have many many mutual customers with Bell and it we are fully cognizant of the need to get this figured out.